Pedro Javier Cruz-Sánchez (Salamanca, 1969) holds a degree in History, specialising in Archaeology, and a PhD in History from the University of Valladolid. I am currently a researcher at the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) and a member of the Centro de Estudos Transdisciplinares para o Desenvolvimento (CETRAD) of the same university, as well as working as a freelance professional.
My research focuses on the study of different aspects of Popular Religiosity, sacred landscapes, intangible heritage, popular architecture, historical transhumance and material and visual culture. I have written seven books, coordinated three more and written more than 80 scientific papers on different topics related to anthropology and ethnography such as the crosses and crucifixes of Salamanca, the subject of my doctoral thesis, the mills of the SW of Salamanca, the pastoral culture, the historical roads of the province of Segovia or the historical heritage in the Montes de Valsaín (Segovia). I have given numerous lectures and conferences, some of them at Spanish universities and the CSIC, and I have coordinated half a dozen seminars and courses, as well as lecturing at the universities of Salamanca, Valladolid and Burgos.
I am currently coordinating the Laboratory of Sacred Cultural Landscapes of Castilla y León, under the Ethnographic Museum of Castilla y León in Zamora and I have worked on the drafting of the inventory of the intangible heritage of the provinces of Ávila, Palencia, Segovia, Soria, Salamanca and Valladolid, within the Institute of European Studies of the University of Valladolid. I am also scientific coordinator of several international conferences on sacred cultural landscapes and popular religiosity. I have also directed, among others, the inventory projects of the hermitages of the provinces of Ávila, Salamanca, Valladolid and Zamora and the Sacred Stones of León, Salamanca and Zamora financed by the Junta de Castilla y León and organized several exhibitions on the anthropology of the sacred landscapes of the Iberian Peninsula.